sahr2001 - Health Systems Trust

“... To see firstly doing away with discrimination that was there in the health
services, the inequities that were there. And secondly what goes on with
integration of the services which was very fragmented and very unequal in all
aspects.”
“At the end of the day to build a non-racial non-sexist society, where everybody
has access to services not just a few privileged people, that was basically our
vision I mean in a nutshell, not looking at particular areas, that goes throughout
the spectrum. And basically just to better the lives of people and the majority of
people are black people in this country – one was hoping you could work that
out between people.”
As part of the dream and their commitment an expression like ‘to go to bed
each day knowing I had made a difference’, just captures it all.
Challenges and Rewards
Being a legislator at provincial or national level evidently has its challenges,
rewards and frustrations. There is widespread acknowledgement that the
challenges are daunting.
“When we go to the rural areas we are exposed to the worst conditions so that
has actually given me the experience of getting to know how far we still have to
go in terms of health service delivery.”
“I think there is a huge backlog in terms of providing services in general to our
people ... and that actually won’t be an overnight exercise ... those are the
challenges that many of us face, and that is the challenge of actually delivering
the quality of service to people not just delivering, it must also be a quality
service.”
There are tremendous challenges in the actual process of passing legislation,
assessing whether it meets objectives, following it up, ensuring it is being
implemented, reviewing what constraints there are, dealing with these and
ensuring the legislation reaches its objectives.
And equally frustrating:
“The most negative experience for me is that you find that sometimes the
legislature does not have the power over the executive, all you can do is
recommend what they must do ... the best experience is working with people,
in the legislature you tend to work with and help communities more than
defending your own department ...”
“The legislature is very challenging the main problem is that, sometimes you
feel that your administration is not doing what you really want them to do.”
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